"This plan feels a bit radical." On August 5, 1689, in the office of the capital Dongfang Port, Li Qing, who was about to retire, said to herself to a document handed over from below.

This document was composed of a working group composed of a joint member sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the State Development Administration, the Ministry of Immigration and the Joint General Staff Headquarters. It took one month to complete. Although it is still the first draft, the core content has basically been determined. Small details may be modified in the future, but the large framework will not change.

The content of the document is about the official proposal of the East Coast Republic of China to the Kingdom of Spain to purchase some of its colonies in the Peru Governor's District. To put it bluntly, the people of the East Coast want to expand and swallow more land. It just so happens that the Kingdom of Spain also needs money recently, so a plan to exchange land for arms, food, and daily necessities is of course indispensable. After all, everyone likes hard currency.

The document regarding land purchase is roughly divided into three parts.

The first piece is about resolving the buyouts east of the Yanbu Railway and some areas of Chile. According to the previous agreement between the East Coast and Spain, this part of the land was developed by the East Coast government by paying rent, and the ownership is not actually in the hands of the East Coast. Considering that nearly 200,000 East Coast citizens have lived on these lands and their economic development is extremely rapid, it is actually impossible to return them to the Spanish government after the lease expires. Therefore, the East Coast people wanted to end the lease early and buy them out at one time by giving the Spanish currency and in-kind compensation.

The document believes that the Kingdom of Spain has long been mentally prepared for the loss of this land and will not resist much, so the resistance of the East Coast people to purchase is very low. Perhaps the only place where the two sides argue is that the people of the East Coast want to recover part of the rent that has been paid to the Spanish in advance, or directly deduct part of the purchase of land. However, the Spanish government, which is expected to be reluctant to leave, may not accept this method, so the two sides may confront each other seriously for several rounds before they can finally make sure.

But no matter how much the dispute is, no one still has any questions about the future ownership of this part of the land.

The second part of the land that people in the east coast are the vast plain west of the Yanbu Railway. This land is vast, suitable for herds and farming, and has a lot of precipitation. It is an important agricultural and animal husbandry production area. If a large population is moved here and a development plan is carefully formulated, it can continue to make great contributions to the entire country in the next hundred years. In the future, more than half of the children in the country may be born here, and the increasingly large industrial and agricultural facilities in the country will be transferred here one after another, and funds from wealthy areas in the eastern coast will continue to flow to this virgin land. If we consider that the capital will also be relocated to the Pampa Chako Plain in the future, we can responsibly say that in a few decades, it will become the political and economic center of the country, just as Guanzhong was in the Qin and Han Dynasties, Henan was in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the so-called land of heart and the foundation of kings and tyrants.

The west of the Salt-Bai Railway can be said to be still blank. With the various actions of the people on the east coast, fewer and fewer Spaniards who originally reclaimed, grazed, and caught bison here, gradually disappeared invisible. Even though Madrid tried their best to migrate many Spaniards, Southern Netherlands, and Italians, they even asked Austrian relatives to help get a lot of Germans, Hungarians, and Dalmatians who came here were "sinners" who had opposed Vienna but still had little effect. A large part of these people even ran to the East Coast control area, working in the Hejian and Pampa Plain, causing the population of the Buenos Aires trial court area to continue to lose.

In such a context, talking about economic development and curbing the East Coast is a joke. There is nothing left without a person, and there is no development anywhere. In the end, we can only calculate whether we can sell a good price to the East Coast people. The East Coast people are naturally very familiar with the situation of the land west of the Yanbu Railway, but although they like it very much and want to get it quickly, they do not want to give the Spanish too much money. They only want to give this half plain of 2.5 million yuan, and they can't do more of it. Of course, if the Spanish can accept payment in kind, they can be slightly more, but this is another matter.

The third piece of land to be purchased is the Chaco Plain, which is currently infiltration across the border. This large plain with an area of ​​equally vast (although the soil is not as fertile as the Pampa Plain), the development level of people on the east coast is not high enough. So far, only a few settlements have been set up in the riverside area, and the population is not large. After all, this is not the focus.

However, with the planning of railways and highways, and the plan to move capital to Cordoba in the future, the Chaco Plain must be taken down. It’s not that there are any minerals here and how fertile the land is. The main reason is that the location here is very critical, with all the connections. It is impossible to avoid going to Peru, Paraguay, Chile, and the Hejian area that is now increasingly prosperous. Once the transportation infrastructure keeps up, I’m afraid that one or two railway hubs will be built, and the future development prospects are still quite promising.

Of course, the Chaco Plain is not without its shortcomings. Although there is a lot of rainfall here, the soil is not as fertile as the Pampa Plain rich in volcanic ash nutrients. If you engage in agriculture, your competitiveness is definitely not as good as the southern one. Moreover, because of the relatively low-lying terrain, the drainage here is not very smooth. A certain problem has arisen after thousands of years of accumulation, that is, the soil salinization level in many areas is relatively high, and several famous large lakes are mostly brackish lakes. In the future, unimaginable huge funds will inevitably be invested to transform them, otherwise it may not be ideal.

Fortunately, the east coast has enough land, but the population is only 7 million, and there is no conflict between people and land. In this way, even if the funds for the transformation of the Chaco Plain are not sufficient, it is not important. You can put it first and use it as a pastoral area. Don’t forget that the Chaco Plain means "hunting country" in Quechua language. The number of animals is as numerous as cows. You can rely on hunting and grazing to support the early economy, and wait for the country’s financial surplus before developing and transforming it.

The East Coast people are only willing to bid about 2 million yuan in this slightly barren plain. Unless the Spanish are willing to accept payment in kind, it is unlikely to increase.

The team who wrote the document believes that although the Chaco Plain is not as good as the Pampa Plain in the south in terms of agricultural conditions, it is worse than Pampa in terms of purchasing difficulty. The reason is that it is because it is a backup route for the Spanish to transport American silver, and they do not want to lose it. Even when the eastern coast navy is extremely powerful and the pirates on the southwest Atlantic coast are almost extinct, the Spaniards have transported more silver to the estuary of the La Plata River and then transported it back to the country from this relatively safe route. Therefore, their importance to the Chaco Plain may be much higher than that of the Pampa Plain. Anyway, they do not farm any plain, so naturally the Chaco Plain with better location advantages is more important to them.

If the East Coast people want to reduce the resistance to purchase, they have to make a promise to the Spaniards, that is, to ensure the safety of their silver transport route. If possible, the East Coast people can even promise to send local militias to protect them when the Spanish transport team appears. And when it reaches the sea, they can promise to send warships to escort for a period of time to improve the survival rate of Spanish silver transport ships as much as possible.

The working group believed that this condition was quite tempting for the Spaniards. Because they also knew that their colonies were almost the same as sieves and the officials were not very reliable. The departure time of the silver transport fleet was originally top secret, but in fact it was often leaked and then seized by pirates or private fleets from other countries to intercept, resulting in a shocking case. Therefore, when transporting silver from the Caribbean sea to Spain, the route was often a death route, and I don’t know how many forces were staring at it. The ** colonial officials colluded with the pirates to dig out the corners of Spain together. This kind of thing should be hated by Madrid.

But it would be different if they went to the estuary of the La Plata River. With the strength of the eastern navy, no pirates were so arrogant that they dared to come to the southwest Atlantic to make a living. Therefore, if the Spanish silver ship went to sea from here, the departure time could be kept confidential and there were people to escort at the initial stage, so the safety has increased by more than an order of magnitude?

From this perspective, the Spaniards are not considered a loss. Perhaps the only thing that makes them uneasy is that after the Pampa Plain is gone, the land and sea routes of the Shipin are controlled by the East Coast people, and they will be even less able to resist the East Coast in the future, otherwise they will suffer a great loss.

To sum up, the East Coast people planned to propose to the Spaniards this time that the purchase of these three lands is expected to cost more than 6 million yuan, and a considerable amount of them must be deducted from arms, grain, daily necessities and other commodities. This data is actually carefully calculated, which can help the Spaniards fight an offensive war of medium size and time span, or a long inside defensive war, which is enough to ensure that they have a little bit of self-protection in this continental melee initiated by the French, although their situation still does not seem very optimistic.

"Why don't you go to heaven if you buy so much land in one go?" Li Qing banged the document and said with a smile: "Although the Spaniards urgently need money, they were not defeated and forced to sell land. It is not very likely that they will lose so much at once."

"But it is also necessary to give it a try, anyway, there is no cost." Li Qing quickly added: "Even if you can't buy all these three places, it's good to handle two of them. Well, the area east of the Salt-Brain and southern Chile must be guaranteed to be won, which is the primary goal. The second is the Pampa Plain, which is slightly less difficult than Chaco, and is easier to buy, and is a secondary goal. The Chaco Plain needs to be strived for to achieve, but it should not be forced to be completed, although we need to keep pace during negotiations. Okay, take it to review it for several other committee members. I have no problem here."

After saying that, Li Qing picked up a fountain pen and brushed it and wrote her opinions, then closed the folder, handed it to her secretary, and said.

The major issue of land acquisition is naturally impossible to decide by their diplomatic system itself, so it requires the consent of most members of the Executive Committee to implement it. Moreover, the East Coast finance is not very abundant now, and the military expenditure of the Navy and Army has taken up a large part. I believe that if the Dutch natives helped solve the maintenance costs of the Portuguese task force this time, it would be impossible for the East Coast people to collect all land acquisition funds. Of course, it is difficult for them to do so even now. Since the fiscal budget meeting has been held, all funds have been available, and now there will be an additional few million, which can only be solved by issuing bonds.

But no matter what, even if the debt is high, the money for buying land must be raised. This is not only to accumulate property for future generations, but also to give Spain blood transfusions and prevent them from falling down quickly. You must know that their king is not a smart and healthy person. In fact, his current mental state may have serious problems, and most of the ministers around him are submissive and flattering people. Even if there are occasionally a few who can do practical things, their voices are often drowned in the crazy words of more stupid people.

Senior analysts at the General Administration of Intelligence once studied the Spanish King Carlos II in depth and questioned his judgment ability. They believed that when the plot of Austrian King Leopold and Louis XIV conspiring to divide Spain was exposed and the secret agreement was seen by Carlos II, he actually dealt with the West coldly. The relationship between Austrians for a period of time, and then "believe" his Austrian relatives and betrayed Spain's interests to serve the Austrian Habsburg family. This is really hard to understand. You know, when Carlos I learned that Leopold was coveting his Spanish throne, Carlos Is

He shed tears and cursed his relative loudly, but what happened later? The intelligence officials could not explain it, and in the end they could only think that Carlos II knew that he had no heir and that the Kingdom of Spain would be handed over to outsiders sooner or later. Even though he hated Leopold, he had no choice but to reconcile with his relatives and eventually entrust the kingdom to the kingdom. Of course, the intelligence officials also gave another explanation, that is, the favorite ministers, servants and guards around Carlos II were hooked up with Vienna, and then influenced him through various channels, causing him to change his position and get close to the Habsburg family in Vienna.

But no matter what the truth is, it doesn't matter. What is really important is to seize as much land as possible from the Spanish before Carlos II died and the situation became more complicated, so as not to have more dreams in the future and create more troubles.

The pace of seizing Spanish land must be accelerated!
Chapter completed!